Home is where the Church is [Trinity 3; St. Luke 15:1-10]

Jesus speaks to you today, saying,

“And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”

Notice that the Shepherd neither returned to the 99 sheep nor did he go to the pen or the barn. He dashed off after the one, scooped him up, and ran home to the Feast. Same thing with the woman and same thing with the Prodigal son.

The father, heedless of his looking and acting like a fool; heedless of the day’s work, runs towards his wayward, unworthy son, embraces him, and lays out a great feast at his home.

When you talk about your church, it is never “home” for you, is it? We have our own houses. We each have worked hard in order to provide a house for our family and, as the 9^th and 10^th Commandments tell us, house and home are important.

So when we hear about this house being returned to, in the Gospel, we can relate. You wouldn’t go anywhere else to celebrate something so important and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Neither would Jesus.

The home you have worked hard for and built a family, or a life in, is no small thing to you. You invest time and money in building or buying, because you want what you what and how you want it. You then continue this forever, because there is always something that needs doing, in your house.

Last month we talked about how the Church is our mother, but if we weren’t able to find her, what good would she do us? Thus, the Shepherd knows His home and returns to it. Once the lost, probably dead, lamb is found, He returns for with this single sheep, all is completed.

He returns to where the promise of house and home is kept and heard. He returns to the place where there is celebration over this found sheep. And, as verse 7 tells us, that place is heaven.

Jesus completes the flock with just this one sheep and just this one coin. Celebration begins over one and when brought to the visible home, all is finished. When you see the promise fulfilled, you know that the house is full, the home is complete, and the Feast is set.

How can you fill a house with just one? No one is big enough to fill an entire house. You can do it metaphorically, by filling it with things that represent you, but that is not the same level of ownership and comfort. True ownership is being there in all places at all times.

Repent. There is no way you can own house, home, or anything completely, much less build a proper house and home. We raise families, if we’re lucky to have children, but they leave. We accumulate stuff and it deteriorates or gets destroyed by floods. The things you hope in for eternity are not made by your hands.

Dear Christians, the Good Shepherd is the Lord. The one, lost Sheep is Jesus. Jesus has left His heavenly fold, become a man, and suffered and died in order to fill His Father’s House. Jesus alone is able to accomplish this.

Jesus alone can make a House and home that is eternal. Jesus alone is able to make promises and keep them. Jesus alone is able to be lost in our sin, die because of it, and be found again in new life. Jesus alone is able to accomplish all this and yet keep His promises and make it so they are available, with no question, mystery, or trickery.

The Church is the household of God. The place where you are called by the Gospel, not as sinners, failures, or backsliders, but as members of the Body of Christ.

“¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor.12)

The Father returns with His Son, Who was dead, but is now alive, to this House. For it is only in the Son that any and all promises of God have anything to do with us. Us who are baptized into the Body of Jesus now are not a part of the 99, but of the one; the one who is rejoiced over. “Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Eph.5:23)

The one Whose sin was not His own and yet He became sin for us. In Jesus suffering and dying on the cross, He has sanctified His Church, making it holy. He Himself, being the Lord of all that is holy, gives His holiness to His Church for free. It is His gift, thus we call the Church, ourselves, holy.

This holy Church is Christian, because she would not exist without Christ and finds all her substance and being in Him. For it is no longer we who live, work, or contribute, but Christ. In this holy, Christian Church the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are administered for salvation and forgiveness, as the words and promises of God declare.

That is Evangelism. So this holy, Christian, evangelical Church declares God’s Word. That is orthodoxy or aligning and conforming to what God has said. Also, she is a part of eternity, containing all baptized believers of all time; universal or catholic.

In this holy, Christian, evangelical, orthodox, catholic Church Christ comes among His gathered Body to teach and feed them publicly. We do not accept this work nor do we obey; we simply receive. All is made ready, all is accomplished, and all is perfected. Jesus worked His holy and Good work in order that He give it to us, for free.

By the miracle of washing, rebirth, and hearing, God brings us into and keeps us as His Church. The holy Church is called by God and given many glorious names and standing. She is called by God to receive and give His Love, Who is Jesus.

Nothing is more important than house and home, because nothing is more important than Christ’s House and Home. But your house and home need not be worshiped or a model for all. You do have an example to follow, but far more importantly you have perfection to receive at Jesus’ hand.

You already have a House, here that does not fail. You are already part of a Home that does not fade or fall apart. You are God’s people because you have received mercy from Him, regardless of how much we gain or lose. Jesus has purchased and won the Church with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.

The holy Christian Church preaches this Gospel in its purity, for salvation, and administers these sacraments according to the Gospel, for the forgiveness of sins. The Word of God is here, this must be Church. Christ has come among us, rejoicing, this must be heaven.